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#213: Gold and Lead and Mercury Confound the Autoptician

PART 1: Operation Talk-the-Talk goes off the rails.

PART 2: Calculus will downsample your brain to make a snuff film.

(This episode is dedicated to Matthew, Brit, and their baby boy, & to the heart of my heart, kµ.)

#213: Gold and Lead and Mercury Confound the Autoptician

Comments

"The autopsy cycle in a mannequin republic" is a line harder than a coffin nail Also, in an attempt to provide some small comfort that things will not be this way forever, as a person approaching their 7th year of sobriety I find that I am still in the process of getting to get to know my post-addiction self. You are not fixed (or dilated) to one position now, but still forever in the process of becoming. May god bless you and keep you May it's face shine upon you And bring you peace

John H

Hey, Michael. As an ex-junkie (of about a decade, and gosh...maybe 15 years off the stuff?) I just wanted to congratulate you. It's a big fucking deal. I hope you stay the path, brother, and for what it's worth...this podcast has been a godsend for me and my Pynchon fanaticist brain.

Scott

Feel like the Gesaffelstein music video really captures the folly of thinking things being reduced into smaller and smaller pieces CONSTITUTES the thing as a whole https://youtu.be/oRSijEW_cDM?si=vwp66MT8AaJ2XHJd

Scott Bobbitt

Hey MSJ, I saw you on Twitter getting some talk going about Falstaff - I'm commenting here because I don't know how Twitter works anymore, seems permantly fucked etc - and I'm just here to pile on another recommendation to see the Welles film, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. It's streaming on the Criterion Channel but if you don't have that, most of the big services have it too. Incredible film. Also, come to Bluesky! It's still pretty small-time but that's not a bad thing at all. And who knows what it'll be as it scales up but for the moment it's kind of "what if you took Twitter but everybody bullied/blocked all the Nazis and TERFs and Crypto bros into deleting their account". There's no invite code, it's just open. Up to you obvs but it'd be cool to see you there.

Rohmer Simpson

Thomann has a Lewitt LCT 840 for only $666 right now, just FYI. Sweetwater has them priced at $1200 (Thomann was the only place I could buy the Hesu speakers from as a ‘Murikan)

NYCM&AHole

I don't think I could ever deserve this, but thank you for being so kind anyway

Michael S. Judge

Not to embarrass you or anything, but you deserve it. It takes a lot of humanity to understand it in that way

Margarita Calderon

Just listened to the prologue and want to say before I keep listening. I really appreciate you and that you spoke about this and acknowledged Max Azzarello. I'm so happy you have that feeling in your life and I'm not a word smith like you and I know it's para social but I'm really happy for ya pal and yeah... Enough melodramatics now.

Kate Baldwin

I don't know if you've ever read or studied the old Chan (Zen) teachers but this episode really demonstrated that you deeply Get What The Fuck They Were On About.

David

I think part of it is you explaining how you do and have felt and that I relate to it way too much and it made me upset that someone else is having to feel that way, that so many probably are, and I wish I could take that away for everyone else. But even amongst all of this, all of that, beautiful things can still come from what feels like the darkest place, that love still exists. And it's why we keep going.

SeattleSomethin

Not gunna lie for some reason the beginning of this actually had me tearing up. Been in a dark place, sometimes we really do need to remember why we keep going. Thank you my friend. On another note, I love that song and I'm gunna reach out to them and see if I can cover/remix it. Amazing song.

SeattleSomethin

Ran across this and I’ll add it to my list of things to watch when I am sick or a day off and I have time to truly appreciate it. https://youtu.be/TB6SvQINfzY?si=W48tHyJJW4ZfMP1c Always wished I was a neat solderer like that.

NYCM&AHole

Yeah I’ve seen people testing Marshall plexis in repair videos that are allegedly 100 watts and they turn out to be like 140 watts. Never was a huge Marshall amp fan though (except for a certain guitarist’s variac’d Marshall) because they’ve been absurdly expensive until this year.

NYCM&AHole

Yeah, the original Alnico Blues were exactly 15 watts, and they didn't plan on anybody pushing their amps into overdrive – who would want *distortion*? – so the first Marshall JTM45 combos had 30 watts' worth of speaker (2 Blues) and they caught fire on a regular basis. Same reason Hendrix switched from G12M25 Greenbacks to G12H30s in his Marshall cabs – a 100-watt Marshall utterly cranked can peak above 150 watts, and there's live film of him playing while a jet of fire that used to be a Greenback shoots out the front of his Marshall cab, lol

Michael S. Judge

Also lol I didn’t know about the exploding speakers

NYCM&AHole

Lol I mean I actually have Jeff Loomis devil’s triad going 4 cable method (stupid mesa for putting in a parallel loop) but I do have a TS for shits and giggles. But that tone needs the mesa oversize cabinet resonance and that affects tone etc. But I have a pair of vintage 30s in a carvin legacy 212, and they sound different because they’re front loaded. I’ll look into the eminences. Though I want to try the Hiwatt LCFR 150 ( https://lichtlaermaudio.com/shop/lcrf150 ) and some of the wearhouse guitar speakers.

NYCM&AHole

V30s can do way more than that, but if you actually do have a Dual Rectifier, try Eminence CV-75s, and try a Barber Gain Changer or Analog Man Beano Boost instead of the TS

Michael S. Judge

I don't know that particular source, but o we will get there – if you've read that, you've probably read THE DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT, but just in case ... have a look

Michael S. Judge

But that YT link is misleading – people *think* the difference is "UK V30" vs. "Chinese V30," and it very briefly was, but it isn't now. Capsule history: • 1987: Marshall wants to celebrate its 25th anniversary by making a reissue JTM45 2x12 "Bluesbreaker" combo, but without the original Celestion Alnico Blues that tended to explode, so they ask Celestion for a new speaker • 1987 is also Celestion's 30th anniversary, so they design a speaker that's supposed to have the power and volume of a ceramic with some of the tone of an alnico – hence "Vintage 30," because of the alnico-tone affinities and the 30 years, NOT because (as is often wrongly presumed) they're 30 watts (they're 60 apiece) • then–mid ’90s: Vintage 30 becomes hugely popular for all kinds of contexts, especially as THE hard rock + metal speaker, though they actually rule at all kinds of things (you put them sumbitches in something that sounds like a Vox or a tweed Bassman, you are on your WAY), and Mesa/Boogie uses V30s in tons of its amps • late ’90s or early 2000s, nobody knows: Celestion changes the design (allegedly the speaker cone) of the V30 and outsources its production to China, both to cut costs • same time: Mesa/Boogie goes to Celestion and says "These new V30s suck, so you can lose us as a client, or you can build us some of the old good ones," and Celestion does smaller production runs of original V30s in Ipswich, UK, *strictly* for Mesa/Boogie • and here's the key part: sometime in the last 25 years, Celestion has moved Vintage 30 production back to the UK, *but they're still making the shitty second version of the speaker*. Doesn't matter where they're from now; if you buy them off the shelf from Celestion or in any amp that's NOT a Mesa/Boogie, you're getting the v2 Vintage 30. (Those can be OK, they're hardly unusable, but they're nowhere near the originals.) • SO, if you want a real Vintage 30, there are only two ways to do it: either buy a late-’80s/early-’90s speaker (and of course those are counterfeited to death now), OR buy a new Vintage 30 straight from Mesa/Boogie. Every single other new V30 is the v2, no matter where it was made; if it's new and not from Mesa, then it's a "Chinese V30," even if it was built in England. ... And if that seems excessive, I know a guy who runs a company, and a successful one!!, dedicated to nothing but period-accurate recreations of Celestions as they changed across the ’60s and ’70s, mostly Greenbacks and the gorgeous mega-underrated "Silver Bell" Alnico (#1 best speaker in a Vox, hands down, if you're sticking with traditional alnicos).

Michael S. Judge

Yeah but my problem is then I sound like every other asshole with a dual rectifier, mesa vintage 30s and a tube screamer boosting the signal to tighten the low end.

NYCM&AHole

The best Vintage 30s are some of the best speakers ever, but there are dozens of varieties without many distinguishing marks, and some of them absolutely suck upon the balls of men. If you want V30s, you *have* to get them from the Mesa/Boogie online store – they're the only ones who sell & use the originals

Michael S. Judge

https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Laboratory-Exports-Technology-Occupation/dp/183976208X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=378OJW2T2Y0ZX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.rQXcJhTfKHoNROL55o2JLRqpOCfDhkFvqNtkHU--4vj_iuFsmRkC7iiZpsTu6Y2UkFF_5qr_qTo6kI2VG1eBP07KsphHpf7gxZOXTJ_5N-qpi0ijxC605PFGfkESeePpXVkknwyFIMbXXAf3hcPNx8Vf73KuTrnTFAVZRMcBgVS_NZEi8-DmmH2FzSEfbU7OetHLrWJp8B1fplwUvMtfZQ.uufMF8T6G5PEmTnF4RI5GhchQJm1lTioohN-QRNat6g&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+palestine+laboratory&qid=1714334964&sprefix=the+palestine%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1

Tyler Miller

It's a hard thing for me to talk about, first of all because I'm private and paranoid, and also because it's the kind of thing you can "know" but not be able to say with any detail or conviction, because you don't really feel it ... and the last year or so, against all odds, to my surprise more than anyone else's ("surprise" doesn't even cover it; "shock," really), I've had the chance to feel it in a way I didn't even know existed

Michael S. Judge

I remember listening to an episode, I think it was one which you spoke of immanence and transcendence, where you said that love between two people can be a continual process where you receive the love given to you and transmute it through your own heart and mind and then you give it back and forth transmuting it each time, and it creates a new and larger energy every time you give and receive. You only mentioned it briefly but it blew me away and I’ve thought of that every day since. I was hoping you would someday talk more of this because it is so profound. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Margarita Calderon

From an article on Max: “All he wanted was better for people and it didn’t matter if he knew you or not. He wanted better for everyone.” MSJ - you're a light on the hill, no matter how dark it gets, and so was Max.

Tim

this was amazing. thank you so much for your bravery in what you revealed about yourself and how you felt about things recently. it was one of the good moments for me of which there have been too few lately. I also loved the connections to gravity's rainbow which I am reading slowly. I read everything slowly these days. hard to focus!

diane bluegreen

"they will chop you down just to count your rings"

qjkx

"Hot diggity dog!", my final retort after a second listen. The willingness to engage in a dialectic process with your creative output to the actions of a consuming input is something I've thought about since I started playing live music at 16. Your choice to engage with this directly and publicly is inspiring. Expressing the state of 4R through the fetishization of quantified sample points forces me to reread some of my favorite books on Digital Signal Processing. I believe DSP is a name of the alchemical process you're describing, in terms of our internalization of external stimuli. The favorid of the 4R being with a prepackaged response. It could be useful to think about this in terms of synchronous or asynchronous processes. Our web browsers function in a request/reply dialog over protocols defined to transmit a message type (hypertext) defined in the 30s by.. who's that... Vannevar Bush? Incredible Free Book https://dspguide.com/ Not Free Book Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications 1st Edition by Perry R Cook I have digital and physical copies of this with no regrets. I think he has some free courses on Udemy that are pretty good too. I've begun writing show notes for my own process, and 5 songs entered my mind as I reprocessed your focused stream. - Ministry - Work For Love - Air - Surfing on a Rocket - DJ Screw - My Mind Went Blank - Brian Eno - Kurts Rejoiner - Roky Erickson - The Interpreter One love

glenn mohre

My husband and I listen to “dream baby” often. It means a lot to us. Thank you for this show Michael.

M

Michael. Your show isn't a reason to kill myself, I feel like this should be said. As a matter of fact you kept me going in a way that almost nobody else on the internet has (You're my favorite of my top 3, you're friends with the other 2) because you express some of the feelings I feel better than anyone else I ever met. I was drunk as shit when I started listening to you, in fact I made a dumbass comment while I was still wasted, I think I deleted it. But I got clean myself alongside you, slightly different timeline. I actually started writing about how you were transmuting love into what you put in the show right before you said it. I feel it with every rasp of that beautiful voice of yours. I feel the love man, and as much as I can say this in a not weird way, I fucking love you and the way you roll. I hope it doesn't make you laugh too hard, but you make me feel so much more sane. Do exactly what you need to do, I'll wait and listen. The bit of my soul that I need to push down just to function gets let out of its box when I hear you. I'm babbling now, but I want to send a little bit of love back to you. Also, I want to say I ALSO am finally getting a degree because of your inspiration! I did a really bad analysis of 2666 because you got me to read it. Your words on Bolaño inspired my work though, my peers told me I was being too broad, but I just found out I passed the class. So you helped me on my road to be a teacher too! So thank you so much!

Andrew Rassling

Thank you!! I completely forgot to take photos before i framed and set up my gallery space, but once we deinstall, I'll take better (no glass in the way) pics and put them on twitter :)

Noah Barlow

Congrats man. May we see your artworks?

Tim

I wanted to let you know that I'm basically graduating college because of your show--I started listening several years ago and picked up The Crying of Lot 49 bc of it, and I loved it so much I decided to restart my capstone project, which was going nowhere, and to make a series of paintings based on the book. CoL49 has become a kind of compass in my life bc you told me about it and your analysis intrigued me. Now I've finally finished undergrad this month after 9 turbulent years. So thanks!

Noah Barlow

Don't make me cry Michael!! I feel this so much about my boyfriend and my family.

Noah Barlow

An Immense episode. Tears and brain-fruit. What’s the outro song.

Michael McGroarty

Also this is the compressor https://youtu.be/bU6w1zbQC8g?si=kRa1gTAmvgpoF0p3

NYCM&AHole

See the obsession that some people have with vintage 30s https://youtu.be/JGF-q9WoW-4?si=urKgnOzWZiCbh6EZ

NYCM&AHole

Oh yeah I’ve watched enough YouTube to know the whole SM57 rule but like Ola Englund uses a variety of mics and so does Glenn Fricker and so on. I have just enough to be fine (though i still have an engl or Bogner or Kerry King JCM800 (it has KT77s) on my list), but I think I’m making up for being a broke teenager and I’ve watched too much gear tube (but if I wind up like Kyle Bull, I’m ordering you to put me out of my misery - https://youtu.be/9lh5zhkpP1U?si=lkAFcpdYGAig_bv1 ). My current mystery is at what point do I need rack gear like mic preamps and/or compressors, etc. like I know some mics need phantom power but some need preamps to get to line level if I was listening correctly. I went down a rabbit hole on speakers and cabinets - I bought two old carvin legacy 2x12s. One had old Uk Greenbacks from the 90s, the other has early 2000 era vintage 30s. I already have greenbacks in another cab and they’re differently wired (16ohm not 8ohm) so I swapped them out for Hesu demons. Kicking myself for damaging one of the greenback speaker cones on removal though. I did want some vintage 30s though just to have the option of the basic bitch equivalent of metal tones.

NYCM&AHole

That was a great prologue, put into perspective that huge jump my consciousness made after October. I had serious problems identifying with people who saw anything in Israel, your show educates that for me. Finally got tired of sucking up to nonsense liberal rhetoric for the sake of, “changing someone’s mind.”

why why

Honestly I don't know that much about high-end studio gear. That shit is insanely expensive. If you're trying to mic up guitar sounds, the process I always recommend is • get a Shure SM57, a Sennheiser e609, or both • put the SM57 about halfway between the center and the edge of the speaker, anywhere from a few inches to a foot off the front of the speaker, and then put the e609 on the other half of the speaker, closer to the dustcap (center) • (so you've got the SM57 moved left of the center of the speaker, the dustcap, and then you've got the e609 hanging on the right side of the speaker, but closer to the center) • record those first 2 separately, figure out if you prefer one, or try using them as a mixer between different frequencies of the amp/speaker • and then, it depends on volume, but walk around a bit while playing guitar/bass/etc., anywhere from 5-10 feet from the amp/speaker, and when you hear a spot that sounds particularly good (and has the "air" and transparency to work well with the focus and density of the 57/e609), • and put an SM58, *not* another 57 (tho that could be fine), exactly where your ears are relative to the amp/speaker, anywhere from a couple feet off the ground to the height of your ears So basically a 57 on the speaker cone, not pointing at the center, an e609 closer to the center, and then a 58 works very well as a distance mic to fill in some of what the 57 doesn't get. You might end up only needing/wanting one of the two close mics, which is fine. Or, alternatively, if you have like $1500, go to Sweetwater and buy the package of an SM57 ($99) and a Royer R-121 (>$1,000), plus the clip that aligns them correctly on a mic stand, and just do that forever. I've never had expensive recording gear in my life, I always liked seeing what I could do with minimal resources, but Royer makes a significantly cheaper version of the classic 121 ribbon that's called the R-10. I might eventually enstupid myself into buying an R-10, cos it's the perfect thing with a 57 to make a guitar tone fat as hell, and it's also incredible as an overhead/room mic, killer at smoothing out mean transients on cymbals, drums, piano, etc.

Michael S. Judge

Thanks for this one. Truly.

Ryan Diederich

“At least not uniquely crazy,” YES [nods vigorously until head falls off]

Susan Beal

Honestly the whole thrust of the episode has me wondering that

Adam

This line about the conspiracy between technique and human has me wondering if you’d ever do anything on Federico Campagna’s “Techne and Magic”. Lots of good stuff in there about the reduction of humanity to various measurable abstractions

Adam

Exactly, and G&Y agrees – Matthew and I talked about that lots at one point, how incredible and incredibly underrated that album is. My favorite SP by far

Michael S. Judge

And no need to apologize for the prologue. It’s been a horrible seven months and honestly I’d be broken if it weren’t for my kids’ love and my love for them.

NYCM&AHole

Hi Michael, you can always email me and I’ll take you on a long guitar tone quest tangent to hopefully distract you from the horrors. I want to have discussions with you (and I guess I could talk to your brother) about recording guitar on speakers, microphones, what kinds of preamps are to be used. I’m not going to spend $40k on the 11 tube compressor that takes half an hour to warm up, but if you wanna joke about that kind of insanity, please hit me up.

NYCM&AHole

The production on the Gold and Youth stuff reminds me so much of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Machina/The Machines of God”. This is a high compliment, to be clear. Massively underrated album.

Dwayne Reid

Hear, hear!

John Waaben

Hey man, sorry you’re shook. With all due acknowledgement of my only tenuous parasocial connection to you and your show, I wanted to let you know that during the lowest point in my life, your show kept me afloat. Your words in my head were a companion that helped me feel at least not uniquely crazy and kept me in touch with what I knew I loved and cared about. I’ve got no doubt that Death Corner is a net good in the world. Thank you for gazing into the abyss for us all, and rest assured nobody will begrudge you a break from the horror. Keep it up, Michael.

Heath Iverson


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